4 - Tuesday, February 18, 2014
The Michigan Daily - michigandaily.com
4 - Tuesday, February 18, 2014 The Michigan Daily - michigandailycom
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MEGAN MCDONALD
PETER SHAHIN and DANIEL WANG KATIE BURKE
EDITOR IN CHIEF EDITORIAL PAGE EDITORS MANAGING EDITOR
Unsigned editorials reflect the official position of the Daily's editorial board.
All other signed articles and illustrations represent solely the views of their authors.
Cultivating the economy
Farm bill will improve Michigan agricultural sector
n Feb. 7, President Barack Obama signed the 2014 farm bill at
Michigan State University in East Lansing. The farm bill, formally
the Agriculture Act of 2014, eliminates direct subsidies for all
commodities that are produced except cotton, but increases and extends
subsidized crop insurance to help preserve crop prices. The president
insisted that the bipartisan legislation is not just about helping farmers
but boosting the economy as a whole. The 2014 farm bill is expected to
save about $24 billion over 10 years, compared to the current agricultural
budget. However, the bill cuts $8 billion dollars from the Supplemental
Nutrition Assistance Program. Overall, the new farm bill is set to enhance
the agricultural economy in states such as Michigan - one of the nation's
largest and most diverse farming economies - but will be detrimental to
GABRIELA VASQUEZ I
Venezuela en la calle
SNAP beneficiaries.
According to the Michigan Department
of Agriculture and Rural Development, the
food and agriculture industry contributes
$91.4 billion to the state's economy every year.
Michigan's agricultural industry produces
more than 200 types of commodities on a
commercial basis and employs 923,000 people
in the state's workforce. Michigan ranks
second in the United States in terms of crop
diversity and is also a leader in specialty crops
such as apples, cherries and sugar beets. Since
specialty crops have been garnering increased
interestunderthe newbill, Michigan is atarget
for larger research funding.
The 2014 farm bill links agricultural
practices and land conservation. For the
first time since the original farm bill was
enacted in 1933, the federal funding assigned
to conservation - approximately $56 billion
- exceeds the present commodity subsidies,
which is approximately $44.4 billion.
Farmers are able to access natural resources
to produce healthful and homegrown
foods that contribute to air, water and soil
conservation in Michigan. This provision is
especially important to Michigan farmers, as
preservation.agreements make up about three
percent of the state's total farmland.
Though the bill is necessary for economic
revitalization, its cuts are hazardous to those
in need. The 2014 farm bill will reduce SNAP's
funds by $8 billion. Much of the savings from
the farm bill are in part due to these cuts.
These cuts will affect low-income households
in 15 states and the District of Columbia. A
total of 850,000 households will experience
a cut of about $90 a month in aid. Though
this is minimal compared to the Republican's
proposed $40 billion cut, the impact on families
who depend on SNAP is substantial. Further
action.needs to be taken by the administration
to ensure that adequate aid is provided to
people in need.
East Lansing was the perfect place for
Obama to sign the landmark legislation. MSU
is a pioneer land-grant college, established in
1855 as the Agricultural College of the State
of Michigan. MSU continues to maintain a
tradition of excellent agricultural studies
program and is a leader in bio-based research
and development. While the University isn't an
agricultural school, research in chemical and
biological engineering may indirectly impact
the state's agricultural industry. Supporting
agriculture is vital to Michigan's economic
health and recovery.
Imagine being so afraid that the
contents of your stomach try to force
themselves out through your throat,
burning your insides and causing
biting tears to spill from your eyes.
Imagine spending a day marching
peacefully alongside your fellow class-
mates, protesting your right to basic
freedoms. And imagine that peaceful
protest met with violence. Imaginethe
police, the National Guard, shooting at
you as you run away. Imagine clutch-
ing your phone as if it were providing
you with oxygen, waiting to hear if
your family is safe or if they were one
of the casualties. Imagine being faced
with a choice: stay silent and accept
that you are living in a nation where
your rights are violated on a daily
basis, where you have no freedom of
press or speech, or go out and pro-
test, but face serious injury and death.
Imagine hearing your president blame
you for the violence, imagine having
him shut down media organizations,
so you have no way of knowing what
is going on in your country. Imagine
having soap operas playing on every
channel while college students are
being shotat outside your door.
What you're imagining is reality for
my country.
Last weekend, in Venezuela,
various protests over worsening
economic conditions rocked some of
the nation's largest cities. The protests
were met with a bloody crackdown
executed by government officials
and their supporters. Many peaceful
protesters were taken and put in jail,
and treated as criminals. This takes
us to Wednesday, Feb. 12, El Dia de a
Juventud (DayofYouth).
Popular opposition leaders
Leopoldo L6pez and Maria Crina
Machado had organized a peaceful
protest in Caracas, supported by
university students and a host of
other organizations.
The protest continued peacefully
early in the day, and people began to
return to their homes around 1:30
in the afternoon. At about 2 p.m.,
however, the attacksbegan.
Police, military and colectivos -
armed groups of civilians trained
by the government - converged en
masse on the main plazas and streets
of several cities. Two students and
a member of one of these armed
groups were killed during the attacks.
Almost 70 were wounded, and almost
as many were detainedbygovernment
officials. Friday, it was reported that
the arrestedstudentswerectorturedby
the same officials that were supposed
to protect them.
That night, or perhaps in the early
hours of Feb. 13, the government
released an order for the arrest of
L6pez, one of the opposition leaders.
L6pez has not been seen since the
arrest warrant was issued, though he
MAURA LEVINE|
St
Winter 2014 is one of those winters
we'll always remember. The polar-
vortex-style cold is compounded by
constant precipitation and it seems
that, even if you're wearing two
sweaters and a scarf, you're always
freezing on the walk to class. "Have
you fallen yet?"has become acommon
question in a conversation between
friends who haven't seen each other
in a few days. At the beginning of one
of my classes, my professor suggested
we get special cleats for the bottom
of our boots to keep us from falling.
Given the frequency of slipping
and sliding on the way to class, I'm
surprised I have not seen more of
those. While the campus crews have
been hard at work, it seems they can't
quite keep up. The University, as
well as private businesses and local
residents in Ann Arbor, need to take
measures to step up their sidewalk-
clearing game to keep everyone safe.
Ann Arbor has a city ordinance
requiring that "non-residentially
zoned property owners or occupants"
must clear the snow and ice from their
public sidewalks every day before
noon. Sidewalks must be treated "with
sand, saltor other substance to prevent
it from being slippery," and the city
even provides residents and property
owners with one 5-gallon bucket of
snow-melting substances to aid in
meeting this requirement. Residential
area owners are also required to
remove snow and ice within 24 hours
of snow accumulation. Residents
are urged to report violations of
the ordinance to the community
standards unit of the Ann Arbor Police
Department, and violators can receive
a $500 fine for their noncompliance.
Tattling may not the best solution,
but people have been falling and get-
ting hurt from these slippery condi-
tions. This past week alone, two of
my roommates fell on ice and got
large and painful bruises that physi-
has remained active on Twitter. His
last public appearance was at 10:30
p.m. Wednesday night, on a CNN en
Espafiol interview with Fernando del
Rinc6n. Representatives of his party
have come out and stated that L6pez
is at home, analyzing the arrest order
withlawyers.
L6pez's absence, as well as the side-
liningof other politicalleaders,has left
the organization of the protests to stu-
dents. The movements that occurred
Thursday and Friday were completely
organized by university students; no
politicians participated in or orga-
nized any of them. Thursday's pro-
tests were much more disorganized,
however, and violence erupted on both
sides. Many of the protestors criticize
those on their side who responded to
violence with violence, advocating for
the continuation of peaceful dissent.
Aside from the protests
themselves, the government
has imposed a near-total media
and information blackout. The
government's tightening grip on
media has existed for years prior to
theprotests (forinstance,Venezuela's
oldest TV channel, RCTV, was closed
down in 2007), but is growing in
intensity. Late Wednesday afternoon
at about 4 or 5 p.m., NTN24 was
taken off the air by Conatel, the
government-owned media regulator,
and by executive order of venezuelan
President Nicolis Maduro. NTN24 is
based out of neighboring Colombia
and was the only major television
network covering the protests in
Venezuela. Since then, there has
been no information outside of social
media and a few websites that give
insight into what has been occurring.
Venezuelans are relying on Twitter,
e-mail and text messages to get their
information, since their government
has censored their media.
This is what is happening in
Venezuela right now.
Here's the thing: as terrifying as
the photos and videos of the protests
circulating are, as horrifying as it
wouldbeforyoutoreadinexcruciating
detail the acts of violence that are
occurring in Venezuela's streets,
what's more important is why these
protests are happening to begin with.
In the wake of former president Hugo
Chivez's death, Maduro, Chivez'sheir
apparent, won the election byjust over
1 percent of the overall vote. There
is no majority rule; there is barely a
democracy. We have moved past a
division of ideologies. This isn't about
right versus left, or even us versus
them. It's about freedom. It's about
being granted the basic human rights
that come with living in a democratic
nation: freedom of speech, freedom of
press, freedom to voice your opinion
without fear of being kidnapped,
attacked or killed. It's about security;
iaring the shox
cally limited them for several days.
It's apparent that much of the danger
is due to private businesses' and indi-
viduals' failure to shovel their por-
tion of the sidewalk. The slush from
the perpetual snow storm has turned
into a thick layer of ice, and there is
always new snow on top of that. These
conditions are disastrous for anyone
trying to walk to class. The Diag area
is usually completely cleared, but the
corner of Willard Street and East Uni-
versity Avenue, for example, is one of
the worst. On my way to class in East
Quad, I personally saw two people fall
at this corner. It's shameful that the
local businesses haven't taken the ini-
tiative to shovel their sidewalk areas.
This corner, and many others
like it, technically don't constitute
"campus." Considering that many
of these areas are close to campus
property - less than 10 feet away -
it's ridiculous that campus facilities
haven't been going the extra mile to
keep these areas salted and safe. For
example, students walking from the
Diag to East Quad encounter a block
of unsalted, unshoveled sidewalk
simply because it isn't legally Univer-
sity property and the University isn't
officially responsible for cleaning it.
Granted, it is the job of the local busi-
nesses to take care of their sidewalks.
But if they aren't goingto do it, some-
one has to. Is the University really
going to leave these areas unsafe?
The entire point of snow removal is
to keep students and faculty safe on
their commute to campus buildings.
When entire patches of snow and ice
are not touched for more than four
days because they aren't legally on
campus property, the rest of the snow
removal effort is pointless since Uni-
versity members still have no choice
but to cross this hazardous terrain.
Ann Arbor is a college town. Most
people walking around the campus-
downtown area are students or fac-
it's about living free of fear, it's about
not having to worry if you will have
a gun pointed at you today, it's about
being able to leave your house knowing
you will be safe. It's about not having a
president claim he can communicate
with Chivez through little birds.
It's hard to imagine this if it isn't
happening to you, so let's bring it
home. You're living your everyday
life as a college student in the Unit-
ed States of America. Recent events
have created a deep divide in your
country, and the new president of
the U.S. gained power with barely 50
percent of the vote. The losing party
asked for a recount, due to the close-
ness of the election, and was denied.
You spend a year living under this
new government, and things have
only gotten worse. The government
controls the media. The streets are
full of violent crimes. Every time you
leave your house, you wonder if you
will be facing down the barrel of a
gun. You breathe a sigh of relief when
your house gets robbed, because at
least it wasn't your life they took.
The United States now has one of the
highest murder and inflation rates in
the world. Basic supplies like toilet
paper and milk are hard to find. Res-
taurants experience a lack of water.
Power outages occur sporadically
throughout the nation. You are tired
of the insecurity, of the failing econ-
omy. You are angry at the fact that it
costs your family in nearby countries
thousands of dollars for a plane ticket
(if they can even find one) to visit you.
You want things to get better. So, you
and virtually every college student
in every major city decide to go out
and protest peacefully. And you are
met with tear gas. You are beaten to
the ground. You are shot in the back.
You carry your bloody friend out of
the line of fire, tears streaming down
your face. The vision of the pool of
blood that formed on the street, the
bright red drops that stained your
shoes will haunt you for the rest of
your life. You scream as your friend,
your brother, your sister, your cousin
gets dragged awayby"officials," only
to be tortured for exercising their
rightto speak out in peaceful dissent.
You are unarmed, and those who are
meant to protect you attack you. You
survive, just barely. And you go out
the next day to do it all over again.
So, what can you do? Spread
the word. Use Facebook, Twitter,
Tumblr, Instagram, Vine, texts,
calls, Snapchats, word of mouth. Tell
everyone and anyone of what is going
on in Venezuela. We have freedom.
Let's speak up for those who don't.
Mi Venezuela, t Venezuela,
Venezuela de todos.
Gabriela Vasquez is the Managing
Design Editor and an LSA sophomore.
Tel
ulty. It would be nice to think that
all local businesses, the University
facilities responsible for cleaning
the "campus area," and residents
with public sidewalks would all care
enough about their fellow Michigan-
ders to clear the sidewalks and make
them less dangerous. It would not
take much time if everyone did their
part and cleared their portion of the
public sidewalk when the snow first
fell so that it did not turn into impos-
sible-to-remove ice patches. Their
liability for not only benign bruises,
but for broken bones, god-forbid,
should be weighing heavily on their
conscience. For the sake of the elder-
ly and disabled, snow removal is even
more important than a neighborly
obligationbut a neighborlynecessity.
Some may argue that the recent salt
shortages and the extreme nature of
these conditions have made it hard to
keep up with snow removal. In this
case, I propose that the University put
up warning signs near slippery areas,
and attend to those areas as soon as
they appropriate the resources. They
could even close off potentially injury-
threatening areas to the public until
more salt arrives to remedy the situ-
ation. Instead, the corner of Willard
and East University has remained cov-
eredwith athicksheetofice,traversed
by hundreds of students a day, for this
entire past week. I would assume that
is enough time for local businesses or
campus facilities to obtain salt and
apply it to the sidewalks, though we
are still waiting for that to happen. In
any case, when the conditions are haz-
ardous to our health and well-being
the University should be doing more
to protect us from getting hurt on our
daily commute, and residents should
step up and take the initiative to pro-
tect their fellow Ann Arborites in the
struggle against Winter 2014.
Maura Levine is an LSAjunior.
EDITORIAL BOARD MEMBERS
Barry Belmont, Nivedita Karki, Jacob Karafa, Jordyn Kay,
Kellie Halushka, Aarica Marsh, Megan McDonald,
Victoria Noble, Michael Schramm, Matthew Seligman,
Paul Sherman, Allison Raeck, Daniel Wang, Derek Wolfe
TERESA MATHEW
Made of ire
I wish I could tell my skin that it is made of
fire. That it covers blood and bone and muscle
no different in makeup from Jennifer Lawrence
or Michelle Obama or Emma Watson.
I wish I could tell my skin that it exists as a
covering for what is pulsing within my body,
that it has been designed to keep me safe, and
that anyone who cares more about wrapping
paper than what it contains inside is a fool.
And I am learning that even the people
who love me can be foolish.
I am trying to come to peace with
something I never used to cry over.
I am trying to tell my skin, I am trying to
tell myself, I am trying to tell my mother and
my family and whoever I want to love me that
I am more than my color.
But I am my color, too.
My skin is not a shade an Indian mother can
be proud of, my skin is the color of cinnamon
and peeled-back tree bark, and my skin never
used to make me ashamed.
I am dark. My father is darker, could
probably pass for Black if his features were
not so unmistakably Indian. My mother, on
the other hand, is fair. I never had a problem
with being dark when I was younger - my
father's sister is darker than he is. I thought
her skin glowed, it was so black. I thought
she was the most beautiful woman I had ever
seen. I used to sit out in the sun so my skin
would grow to be like hers. And I laughed at
that Indian standard of beauty, sure I would
never care about the shade of my skin.
But then I turned fifteen, and I sat in a room
while my great-uncle demanded to know why
my two-year-old niece, whose skin is far, far
fairer than mine, was "so terribly dark." He
thundered this at my uncle in a tone both angry
and disapproving, and I shrunk back into a
corner and tried to disappear and learned for
the first time that being brown could make me
feel small.
I was twenty and listening as my great-
aunt told my mother that I was looking a bit
nicer now that I at last looked fairer (living
through two Michigan winters will do that to
you). Most painful of all, I had to listen to my
mother tell me she agreed with my aunt, that
she thought fairer was prettier as well. This
from a woman who married a man so dark
his complexion isn't just shades darker than
hers, it's at the bottom of an entirely different
paint swatch. What did that say about what
she thought of my father? What did that say
about what she thought about me?
I know they say beauty is only skin deep.
But we want even that thin layer of skin to
be wholly accepted by the people we love,
regardless of its color.
When I tell white Americans that Indians
prefer fair skin, they inevitably ask me, in a
tone half disapproving and half slyly pleased,
"Oh, so like ... they want to be my skin color?"
I used to think it was my duty to sweetly
answer these condescending questions. I do
not think so anymore.
I do not want to be your skin color. I want
to be my own. And I want to be comfortable in
it, the same way I was when I was a child and
didn't notice that no one Iread about in books
or saw on television looked like me.
I want my mother and the mothers of
other Indian girls I know, smart, educated
women who love and want the best for their
daughters, to stop caring about the color of
our skin.
Let us play outside if we want to.
Let us get darker, let us develop.
We are more than the shade of brown we
are labelled by.
Let us understand that we are made of fire.
Teresa Mathew isan LSA junior.
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